


“Two Thousand Souls and Twenty Thousand Ducats”

by wordsbymeganmichael



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Modern Day Teaching AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 20:21:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5178371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsbymeganmichael/pseuds/wordsbymeganmichael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern Day AU where Emma and Killian and rival English teachers, teaching their classes about Macbeth, when things get heated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	“Two Thousand Souls and Twenty Thousand Ducats”

She’s tried to ignore it, she really has. But with every day, it gets harder to just let slide - and today, she snaps.  
“‘Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats will not debate the question of this straw: This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, that inward breaks, and shows no cause without why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.’” She tries to focus on the words, and knows that her students have to be having a harder time doing the exact same thing - she’s read Hamlet before, at least.  
“James, I’m sorry, can we stop there for a minute?”  
He lifts his head up from his book with such ferocity that she fears he may have hurt himself, and a spark of terror flashes through his dark blue eyes. “Did I do something wrong?”  
Smiling, she can almost smell the fear he radiates - she knows this class doesn’t enjoy Shakespeare, but everyone needs to read it - it’s in the curriculum. “No, James, you were fine.”  
“Are you gonna yell at Mr. Jones again?” Melanie speaks up, a smile growing not only on her face, but on most of the class’ faces.  
“I don’t know what he’s doing over there, but he’s being way too loud. How can anyone read Shakespeare with all of that noise?”  
“How can anyone read Shakespeare?” someone jokes, spurring laughter from the whole class. Normally, she would argue this, but she’s needs the classroom next door to just shut up, she’s had a headache all morning, just SHUT UP.  
When she lets the joke slide, her class realizes that something is majorly wrong. Without getting up from her chair, she balls up her fist and bangs on the wall behind her, the one that butts up to Mr. Jones’ room. Normally, she would walk over and kindly ask them to be quiet - and, hey, she didn’t mind, he was pretty cute, with his wavy black hair and that accent. A few moments later, there’s a gentle knock on her classroom door, and she knows - as well as the whole class - who it is without looking up. When he comes in without waiting for an answer, they’re proven correct,  
“Miss Swan, can I help you with something?”  
His damn smile lights up the room, and she imagines herself cutting the sarcasm in his voice with a butter knife, it’s so thick.  
“Do you ever think of anyone except for yourself?” Her voice is lacking all the niceness his was dripping with. “Oooh!”’s pop up across the room.  
"Excuse me?" His voice no longer drips the joking aura it did moments ago.  
"Do you ever think of anyone but yourself?" she asks again, this time using the metaphorical knife the cut into his skin. "We're trying to read Hamlet over here, and your class is being so damn loud that I see no possible explanation other than the fact that you only care about yourself."  
His sarcastic smile sends chills down all of the student's spines, but not Emma's - she's not even looking at him. "You're absolutely right, Miss Swan. I do it just to bother you, to piss you off."  
"Well, it works," James comments from across the classroom, but his face turns the same bright red color as his football Jersey when he is met with two pairs of daggers pointed right at him.  
"Perhaps we should discuss this at a different time, not in front of your class. Besides, you're taking precious Hamlet time away from them."  
"How can you expect anyone to even be able to read Hamlet over the sound of your screaming students? What the hell are you doing over there anyway?"  
This time, his smile is sincere. "We're reading Romeo and Juliet. Maybe we should turn that meeting into how to expand your teaching styles." Turning his attention to the class, he snarkily asks, "Wouldn't you like to have as much fun as we have next door?", but when they see the piercing glare Miss Swan throws at her, they know not to answer.  
“I just need you to be more courteous of the people around you, Jones. So you and your sass can go back to your classroom, as long as you leave mine in peace.”  
His face loses the serious demeanor is held throughout this conversation; a genuine smile flowed across his features. “I will do that, not a problem, if you agree to get coffee with me before you go home today.”  
Even through her disgust with the way he is acting, she can’t hold back the smile that plays across her lips. “Fine. Coffee.” She turns back to the class, and Mr. Jones doesn’t even try to hide how ecstatic he is by her answer. “Now,” she addresses the class. “Can we go back to Hamlet?”


End file.
